Twenty six ways to Wargame

2.SS Panzergrenadiers

2011-10-16T03:46:00.000-07:00

Today I shall display my work on my integral part of my 2.SS Panzergrenadierkompanie army. Without a doubt, these are the panzergrenadier infantrymen. Forming the 'core' of my panzergrenadierkompanie, they hold the center line and engage in bitter close assaults against the enemy.

Compared to other armies in Flames of War, the SS are expensive in terms of points, and thus less numerous. What they make up for the point cost, they make up in zeal and fanaticism. With each stand being an MG team, they also spit out attacks with a rate of fire of 3 when static. Thus, it is a no brainer that these guys are ace at defense and counter-attacks.

The last game I had with my army, one platoon of panzergrenadiers managed to seize a small village, held off an attack by an advancing 3 platoon of US infantrymen, before proceeding to counter attack and destroy 2 platoon, and leaving the third badly mauled, exposing the enemy's left flank. Meanwhile on the right flank, my other platoon of panzergrenadiers stopped an incoming 2 platoons of US infantry in its tracks before reinforcements arrived in the form of a Sherman platoon - and with combined artillery fire withered away my panzergrenadiers.... not before its platoon leader charged up (by himself, no less, as the rest of the platoon was KIA) to the incoming Sherman platoon and destroying one with a Panzerfaust. This gave me enough time for my Marder IIIs to get into position and to destroy two more Shermans, forcing the Allied commander to rethink his tactics.

Hard as nails with a vicious bite, these SS-Panzergrenadiers have won glory and respect in my games so far.

Painting them too, its a pure joy. Though I've tried my hand at pea-dot, I find it extremely difficult to get it right, so I might try pea-dot camo with the next platoon of SS-panzergrenadiers I may purchase. But for these guys, who were also the very first component of my army, were entirely painted in oak leaf camo - with a mix between spring/summer oak leaf and autumn oak leaf, to give them a Normandy/Market Garden era feel. The models are beautiful, and the dynamic plus static poses of the individual models made them very enjoyable to build and paint. Of course, as these were the first models for Flames of War that I painted, most of the techniques I learned were applied to the subsequent models, and as such my Flak 88 team for example, contain models with the same camo technique I utilized.

SS-Hauptsturmführer, company commander

Panzer IV H and a Workshop Objective

2011-10-09T04:55:00.000-07:00

Today I present you the Panzer IV H - as one of the most common tanks used during WWII, they are incredibly versatile and well rounded. Efficient and trustworthy, they were the basis of quite a few modifications such as the StuG IV and Hummel, to name a few.

In Flames of War, these tanks present a well rounded armored component to any German army. Equipped with the 75mm KwK40, a Sherman must roll a 6+ on a D6 to survive a shot from the front, and a 5+ to be bailed out. Also equipped with two machine-guns (one hull-mounted, the other co-axial), it can also do some serious damage against infantry in an assault. I suppose then that it would come to no surprise that I own ten of these Panzer IV H (one for my panzergrenadierkompanie, and the other in my panzerkompanie along with Panthers).

The painting itself was rather simple - using the experience I had gained from painting Panthers, I stuck with my 3-color scheme to fit in with the rest of my army, though I made sure to leave out some of the dunkelgelb (the yellow/tan color) to be showing more, as opposed to my first batch of Panzer IVs that have a little more of a brown town, as opposed to the second batch ones pictured below.

What my initial batch of Panzer IVs didnt have, I added to these - mainly battle damage. I wanted the tanks to be more battle damage, and so I used the opportunity to remove the various pieces of schurzen spaced armor in the odd places to make them appear blown off and requiring repair. Overall, I'm quite happy with these, and they fit with my Panthers perfectly.

I've also added a picture of my finished Barkmann's workshop, that can also work as an objective point for when I'm not using Barkmann. The piece itself was quite daunting as it's a very complex model, and there's a lot of details - that someone would call it a painter's overload when there's so many tiny details, that you dont know where to begin. I felt that the camouflage drape would be the hardest to paint, and I wasnt quite sure what camouflage to use at first. Feeling that making yet another oak leaf drape would be rather boring, I went ahead and gave a shot at the Fallschirmjaeger's splinter camouflage. I added miniscule lines and I'm quite pleasantly surprised how that came out.

leFH 10.5s and 2nd Armored ?!

2011-10-02T02:46:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been working on my SS Motorized Artillery Battery, consisting of leFH 10.5cm howitzers. Why do I need these when I already have two 1750 point armies (SS Panzerkompanie and SS Panzergrenadierkompanie) you ask? Well, because I thought they looked cool, nothing more. I was quite impressed with the individually sculpted bases that the Flak 88s had, and I was looking forward to these, and oh my, I'm not disappointed. They look *fantastic*.

So once more, using the Flak 88 painting scheme of mis-matched camo (the SS picking up whatever they could find after fighting in Kursk and being refitted in the south of France), I painted these in various camo smocks. Its a pity that Battlefront doesnt sell SS artillery crew in addition to the regular Heer artillery crew.

I've also decided to start working on my US 2nd Armored Division. I was quite undecided whether I wanted to paint the black camo stripes on my Shermans in case I wanted to play another US division, but in the end I feel that I had made a good choice to use the camo stripes. They really are quite unique, and I went with using a different basing, compared to my SS guys. I'm not quite decided on whether summer flock would look better or not. As it stands, the summer flock on my Waffen SS makes them look very rag tag and "camouflaged" with their oak leaves camo, while with the Shermans so far, the dead winter grass makes them stand out.

It certainly works to tell my German and US armies apart, but I think it works in making the Germans more rag tag and more "defensive", while the Americans being more aggressive and "newly arrived", compared to the 2.SS that have been fighting since Kursk. But I'll let the reader judge for himself.

Dabbling in a little Epic: Armageddon again

2011-09-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I've updated the blog. Summer holidays, trip to Italy, wine, food, back to work and such... has all kept me busy. Plus, I've been having one of those painter's brain deadness when I just don't feel like painting nor doing anything productive when it comes to miniatures.

That said, lately I've been becoming intrigued once more by Epic Armageddon. It could be due to that I've been painting Flames of War miniatures non-stop since last year and I need a change of pace. So anyhow, I've started on my new E:A army. I haven't quite decided what to call it, but it's planned to be a Motorized Mountain Light Infantry brigade - a mix between the Russian mountain troops equipped with BTR-80s, and the French Chasseur Alpin with their snow-woodland camo and large berets.

I hear u liek mudkipz?

2011-07-28T04:38:00.000-07:00

There are rumors abound that surely, I must paint other things other than Flames of War?

It's true that I do.... to an extent. I used to paint Warhammer 40k exclusively back then before starting on my Epic: Armageddon army. Speaking of which, please will someone remind me to make some posts about my Epic: Armageddon army? I'm afraid that similarly to my Flames of War army, a 6,000 points Epic army would be rather difficult to capture at once on my desk.

Anyhow, this is an old old project that I had started but never completed. I really should work on it again... it's quite a nice model being a limited edition Space Marine veteran, and while the two-tone designs for a squad, let alone an army at 28mm is a pain, for single models it does look rather good.

Flak 88

2011-07-28T04:01:00.000-07:00

88's, perhaps the most well known and iconic gun of WWII, it had a nasty reputation of not only being an anti-air gun meant to shoot down bombers, but able to destroy tanks with a ground range of up to 14km. Eventually being mounted as the primary weapon on the Ferdinand/Elefant and the Jagdpanther tank destroyers, it made its way to become the primary weapon of the Tiger II.

It was only natural that I get myself one of these for Flames of War.

There are two iterations of these in Flames of War - bearing in mind that I use the Waffen-SS army list, specifically the 2.SS "Das Reich", they come in two flavors: Cobra and Earth & Steel. The main difference, other than that Earth & Steel was released in December 2010 compared to the older Cobra book, is that in the Cobra book, the Heavy SS-Anti-Aircraft Gun Platoon with the 8.8cm Flak 36 gun runs at 235 points for two guns, with the option for them being crewed by Luftwaffe field troops with a noticeable price drop of 130 points for two guns and being able to bombard positions as artillery, though they are rated as Reluctant Trained instead of the normal SS stats of being Fearless Veterans. In Earth & Steel however, there is no more option to deploy them crewed as Luftwaffe, have the only option to be deployed as SS, however their points rating has dropped to 190 points for two guns. Both variants (Cobra and E&S) have the possibility of adding additional crew for +10 points to increase its rate of fire from 2 to 3.

I've actually already used 88's in a game prior to buying them - borrowing them from another player for my game. As expected they did what they were designed to do: shooting down a pesky P-47 and blowing a hole through oncoming tanks. Having put them in the center of my deployed army, they created the perfect stop-gap to any enemy central movement, and force the opposing player to attack the flanks where I had laid stronger defenses using infantry and anti-tank weapons. All in all, for a mere 190 points, the Flak 88 really created a keystone to my defenses.

Having ordered from my usual online retailer, Wayland Games, I got myself the Flak 88 battery for £34. The box itself contained the two guns, the additional crew, but to my pleasant surprise, it also contained a field car and two Sdkfz 7/1 tractors along with the carrying carriage for the 88s. Granted, in the actual game the field car, tractors and carriage does absolutely nothing (not like you can throw the carriage at incoming Americans nor 'jihad-jeep' the field car...) they do add an element of a diorama feel, making them really pleasant to look at.

For the guns themselves come with individually sculpted scenic base, and I have to say that these are fantastic. They add so much character, and I know that the 10.5 leFH 18 artillery battery that I ordered (and haven't built yet) contains those too, so that has me excited. These scenic bases are modeled with logs, shell casings, extra shell cases and are made in a way that the 88s, once placed, appear to be in a properly prepared firing position in a makeshift trench. As a centerpiece for any decent defense, these really fit the bill, and would certainly recommend this product to anyone that enjoys painting WWII equipment like Flak 88s, even if they don't play the game.

Painting wise, as I was going to use them as SS, they were painted mainly as SS, but noticing that they were equipped with the standard metal helmet (Battlefront doesnt sell 88s with SS crew, so its up to the player to model them appropriately), I decided to try something else. Using some inspiration I had gathered from the Flames of War forums, I wanted these guys to look a bit more rag-tag 'Ostfront Veteran'. While my SS infantry are all equipped with the snazzy spring/autumn leaf camo to the brim being lavishly equipped by German high command, I wanted the 88 battery to be a bit more "forgotten" compared to the high profile infantrymen. Therefore they are painted with mixes of regular German uniforms from the 1942 Russian front, along with some odd equipment that can be found from nearby 21.Panzer division and Panzer Lehr units. Sharing some of the colors of the Nebelwerfer battery that are entirely equipped as the standard Heer army units, it adds a nice feel of having the fire support element of the army being a little more rag tag and less "prestigious" to German high command compared to the glory-hunting rifleman and panzers. I felt this added a nice theme to my army in general.

Nebelwerfer Day!

2011-07-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

I have been painting like a mad man lately and besides, it is time that I slowly start showing my collection. Therefore, today's post has been dubbed Nebelwerfer Day as it'll focus on the Rocket Launcher Battery for my main 2.SS "Das Reich" Panzergrenadierkompanie list.

The standard SS-Panzergrenadierkompanie found in the Earth and Steel rule book for the Normandy theater contains several options for fire support. First - your standard 105mm and 155mm artillery batteries, and secondly, rocket artillery options coming in the form of 15cm and 21cm Nebelwerfers.

Nebelwerfers in Flames of War are arguably one of the most cost-effective pieces of artillery that the German player is able to purchase - and in already 'expensive' list when using the SS, cost-effective artillery that can lay down the pain without costing an arm and a leg (or monocle) is quite the welcome addition. In terms of the SS, the SS army list is able to either have the SS-Rocket Artillery Battery (in both 15cm and 21cm version), and regular Heer-crewed Rocket Artillery Batteries, also in 15cm and 21cm version.

Now one of the main perks about using the SS in Flames of War, is their staunch Fearless Veteran status. Veteran makes them hard to kill, but when it comes to artillery, having Veteran skills makes the artillery equally dangerous to when they are on the field. Fearless on the other hand is usually seen in elite paratrooper units such as the US Airborne and the German Fallschirmjaegers. The SS too, have this Fearless status, meaning they pass all morale tests on a 3+. This makes them machines of death especially in an assault and prolonged firefights.

That said, I saw little need for the Fearless status in artillery - after all one would hope that artillery will never be caught on the front lines, least of all in an assault. Granted the fearless status would mean that pinned crewmen from counter-battery fire or from being shot at will be able to sort themselves out and start readying the artillery again, I found the additional points from having this being too costly for what it's worth...

And so rather than spending 120 points on Fearless 15cm Nebelwerfers, I opted out for Confident Veteran Heer-equipped 21cm Nebelwerfer launchers instead. I lose out on the needing a 3+ for morale checks (Confident gives me a 4+ to morale checks instead), however I gain an additional 20cm range and a 3+ firepower test compared to 4+ from the 15cm - meaning I'll be killing things more from further away. For artillery, this is incredibly useful.

Now for the painting aspect, I had to find a way to tie in these nebelwerfers to my army without being too different. In order to do so, I went with my current standard 3-color camo on the launchers, and with standard Heer grenadiers colors for the actual crew. To spice it up a little more, and keeping inline with the Normandy theatre, the crew were painted similar to the Panzer "Lehr" Division and to the 21st Panzer Division, whom were also present in the Normandy theatre. I felt that the camouflage smocks added not only more color to the unit itself, but made them worthy of their "Veteran" status, compared to other more "grunt" infantry in the form of grenadier division that are rated Confident Trained.

Panzer IV camouflage

2011-07-21T02:13:00.000-07:00

I've noticed during my recent research while I've been trying to find the proper color scheme to paint my second Panzer IV H platoon (yes... I decided to get a second one for my SS-Panzer kompanie), that there's both not enough information on color schemes for SS Panzer divisions, but at the same time too much information on the various camouflage used by the various Panzer divisions.

After some searching, I did find an interesting forums that had managed to collect images from various sources, and I have decided to share what I have found.

1.Panzer Division, 1943

2.Panzer Division, Kursk 1943

2.Panzer Division, Normandy 1944

4.Panzer Division, Kursk 1943

11.Panzer Division, Kursk 1943

12.Panzer Division, Kursk 1943

15.Panzer Division, Tunisia 1942

19.Panzer Division, Warsaw 1944

21.Panzer Division, Normandy 1944

Panzer-Lehr Division, Normandy 1944

Panzer Division "Hemann Goering", Poland 1944

1.SS Panzer Division "LSSAH", Kursk 1943

2.SS Panzer Division "Das Reich", Kursk 1943

3.SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf", Warsaw 1944

12.SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend", Normandy 1944

12.SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend", Hungary 1945

What is interesting to note as well, that after 1943/1944, tanks were delivered to units in the standard factory finish in Dunkelgelb (german matt yellow), and it was up to the units and crew to camouflage their vehicles appropriately. Nevertheless, the various pictures provides a valuable insight into the various camouflage types utilized by the various units.

Achtung Panther! or how to paint a 2.SS "Das Reich" Panther (Part 2)

2011-07-17T04:24:00.000-07:00

STEP 4

Now this gets tricky - painting camo.

For this, the best way is to research the theme you are looking for. Look around google images and etc to see what patterns interest you or fit the theme of your army. Different camos use different techniques. Some use block painting, some use drybrushing, some use airbrushes.

I however... don't have an airbrush, yet I need to simulate an airbrush effect.

I have therefore called this technique, "splotch painting". It involves using an old brush with short bristles. The idea is that you'll be using a stippling effect to make "splotches" that'll look like an airbrush as you apply them. Similar to the drybrush, you want to use as little paint as possible, enough to get the color to start appearing after several stipples. If there's too much paint, you'll get an ugly blobby mess that will be a pain to remove and hide. Using the least paint possible and working your way up in intensity is the best way to get the desired effect. In this case, I started with the initial "major" color of Brown.

Camouflage tends to work in very universal ways. There's a "major" color, and a (single or several) "minor" color. Major colors will be applied first, and minor colors will be added on top of it. In the case of my Panther A, Brown is a major color, and Green is a minor color. Depending on how you layer the colors, and how much of the colors you allow to show, the model changes quite dynamically.

Once the brown pattern was completed, a green pattern was added.

Example of stippled effect to simulate an airbrush with a simple paintbrush. Note that it doesnt look impressive at this point.

The Green layer was added, and some camo was added to the road wheels as well. The model is starting to piece together slowly.

STEP 5

We're now reaching the "end" of the painting process. This step is what makes the difference between good painting, and amateur painting. Quite a number of people stop at Step 4 because the model is "painted" and built. Step 5 however, is CRITICAL to make the model REALLY stand out.

Additional details are now painted on, exhausts, tools, equipment, etc etc with different colors.

Then, a WASH is applied. A wash is basically thinned down paint pigment with water (unless you buy pre-made washes, like I do). What do washes do you ask? What they do, is that because they're watered down, when applied, they'll find the small holes and spaces you couldnt cover and or might have covered accidently and fill them in. If you use a black wash, for example, it'll create a shadowing effect.

In the case of my Panther A which is modelled to have zimmerit anti-magnetic mine paste used in WWII has a very "rough" looking armor. We helped make this stand out by drybrushing initially with our first base coats, but it still doesnt look as well as it should.

The tricky part though, is choosing what wash goes best. A black wash is great for creating shadow, but it darkens the model - GREAT FOR INFANTRY, but not so good for tanks, though it depends on style.

I used a Devlan Mud wash. Its a very very dark brown wash, but its not black. Its dark enough to darken my model a little, and brown enough to color my yellow a bit to not make it stand out so much.

Once the wash has dried, I drybrush the model with bleached bone again INCREDIBLY GENTLY AND LIGHTLY as a highlight. You want to do this as gently as possible to highlight the edges without changing the overall color. Its also not bad to lighten up some areas if they're too dark.

Once done, base the model (should you want to), add the decals, and spray varnish. Voila!

The "Washed" model with the Devlan Mud ink wash. Notice how the cracks and spaces is now very detailed, but the model is quite dark overall due to the wash.

The model is now highlighted and based. Notice how the very light bleached bone highlight changes the model completely. Its looking really good now.

Added the final touches: the decals and added the tank commander that I painted up afterwards. This tank is now finished, and dare I say, it looks pimp.

Achtung Panther! or how to paint a 2.SS "Das Reich" Panther (Part 1)

2011-07-17T04:07:00.000-07:00

HOW TO: PAINT A "PANTHER Ausf A" FOR FLAMES OF WAR

STEP 1 - Preperation and Undercoat

Many ways to do this. For the platoon of five tanks, I usually do this for all of them. For the sake of the guide, I'll do one solo.

Preperation bit is self explanatory, with a pair of clippers, clean the model and remove any uneeded sharp bits that'll get caught or end up getting its paint removed. Poor moulding, flash lines and etc are a good example of such. Then without using glue, "build" the model to make sure the parts fit in right. This is of course different in scales. In the case of 10mm Flames of War miniatures, there are hardly any, but in larger 1/36 airplane models, the model will most likely have a seperate engine, cockpit, landing gear and etc to build.

Next, I will glue the primary pieces together. Different ways to approach this usually. Some like to paint every individual piece first, and THEN glue it. I do that sometimes for larger 28mm scale WH40K / Warhammer models for showcase pieces, and then touch up where the superglue / plastic glue frosted or distorted the paint. For smaller scale stuff, drybrushing is the primary technique you'll be using, so you'll want to group up the main bodies together and form "blocks".

(see pic below). In the case of the Panther, I have several blocks : The turret (tank commander is painted seperately because he's key point of a tank), the chasis, the two tracks, and the two track guards. As you can see, the hull MG, hull ports and exhausts have been glued to the chasis.

Then, undercoat in black.

Undercoating in black is usually my favorite style, as it allows darker, dustier and grimey looking colors to appear through drybrush. White undercoat is not bad if you have lots of bright colors that need to catch the eye... but in most cases, a black undercoat and layered colors to get the brightness also works. I personally very rarely use white, except for Epic: Armageddon tanks, because the white undercoat with a tan/mud wash gives a tan color that I'm looking for, but... thats for 6mm models. For larger 10mm tanks, it needs more detail than just a quick wash job.

(I noticed the barrel was tilted when i took the photo, its been straightened before being undercoated)

STEP 2

Once the black undercoat is dry, what you want to work on next is usually the base coat. There are several ways to work the base coat, and this usually depends on the miniature scale - ie a 15mm tank will be painted differently from a larger 1/35 scale, for example. In the case of 15mm, the technique I use is DRY BRUSHING. You should be familiar with this technique, if not here is a quick refresher:

DRYBRUSHING : Drybrushing involves putting paint on your brush, and removing excess paint with a towel. Your brush being "dry" and not dripping with paint, will only 'paint' highlighted areas of the model, leaving the recesses to remain the base color. If your brush is too wet and or has too much paint, you will obscure the details by having paint go in the crevaces. Drybrushing essentially allows you to paint the upper areas, leaving darker bits below. This technique is great for highlighting.

/!\ WARNING : Drybrushing tends to ruin brushes very quickly. Make sure you use an old one.

So continuing, for my main theme in the 2.SS "Das Reich" army (or the 12.SS "Hitlerjugend" army, depending on mood and depending on if I want Tiger I E tanks...), the base color I always use is Iyandel Yellow from Citadel Miniatures. In the case that you DO build an army, its always best to use the same base color, as this really defines how your miniature is going to look and feel. Simply having a slightly different tone, will make your miniature stand out and not belong with the rest, defeating the idea of having a uniform platoon.

So for the Panther base coat, I did two layers of the drybrushed base coating. The first layer had a lot of black bits showing, and areas not well covered, so the 2nd coat does the job. At this point, your mini looks relatively shit and leaves you wondering if you did something wrong. Dont worry! It's ok, the deal with drybrushing is that you work in layers and you gradually work upwards, thus you keep the high details while working on layered painting, rather than attempting to get the perfect color in your first layer through block painting (which is better suited for larger models).

STEP 3

One the base coat is done, I mixed a bit of bleached bone with my Iyanden Yellow, something like a 1:1 mixture to get a highlited Iyanden Yellow color. This was then applied VERY LIGHTLY as a slight highlight to the base coat. Though for my other models (see first post) I did not do them, you can tell because the ywllow if very very dark. For my Panthers, I'm aiming at a nice summer Normandy color scheme used by both the 2.SS and the 12.SS, and so I wanted the yellow to stand out more, rather than having an autumn yellow color. By simply adding this third highlighted layer, it makes ALL the difference.

The initial base coat

3rd highlight layer. Might be a little hard to see, but note how the edges are a lot more visible due to the highlights

The tracks were glued on, and the turret was fitted for looks. This gives me an idea of how my tank is looking and whether the colors from different pieces match. Tracks were just drybrushed with Calthan Brown to make the treads stick out. Nothing special. A second super light drybrush with silver was used to make the treads more metallic and more realistic. This is largely optional, and its the first time I test this, and it looks rather good.

New blog theme

2011-07-17T04:05:00.000-07:00

Awesome, it's time to update this.

Removed all the previous emo shit from the last couple years of utter inactivity - besides its probably better to not talk about my professional working life.

Anyhow, now that I've removed all the content, time to add in the new.

What is this new content you say? Hobbies! Yes, wargaming, painting, PC gaming and what not. Besides, it's about time I actually had a proper painting log with aaaaaaalll the stuff I've painted in the past 4 years, so why not?